92 Indulge. The world's largest and finest gourmet cashews.. ; ,.; . . N <<& ,0;;;-- <<" . )x )v AtTUAt. . .... :. --...),. ". . . We disc << . imporf onIý the pIck. O! $> . '. your order. we very roastyoUt cashews by hand .ii our extlusive nutOit 1hís,.p3fnstaking pro- cedure ensures that each and every one of these delìcacies reaches golden perfectton for the ut- mostofflavor. Orderyours now 100% guaranteed. ---------------------------------- RUSH ME _ 20 oz. DECORATOR GIFT TIN(S) OF THE SQUIRE S CHOICE GOURMET CASHEWS AT $15 95 PLUS $195 UPS o SALTED 0 LIGHTLY SALTED 0 UNSALTED o CHECK ENCLOSED 0 AMERICAN EXPRESS o MASTER CARD 0 VISA 0 SEND FREE CATALOG CARD NO NAME ADDRESS CITY EXP DATE STATE ZIP If you ean t be a house guest in Bucks ounty be ours. fhe 1740 House is a country inn-worthy of special note because of the stout determination of the hosts to give visitors a place to stay that is quiet, charming and memorable. Twenty-four air-conditioned bedrooms, each with bath and terrace, on the Ðélaware River In summer when it is warm there is swimming, fishing and boating. And in winter, quite the other way, ice skatmg, a bit of skiing, a quiet winter walk along the old canal towpath . . . and proprietors who know a thing or two about making you welcome. We'll be glad to send you our broch ure and driving directions_ I?A40 HOUSE LUMBERVILLE, PA.18933 BUCKS COUNTY Tel.: 215-297-5661 "'. . 'fþ,. , 8' . p -1W4T w .. / , . Q > ' N t "" X: .; > '-"" t:^!'. X', ""..- _ __ w...... _, ". k->< Dally. f','<<'4'>' Þ $' ^eO$on ,Y A w..:.';;:;, ,:. .::- _ t D T li -, !:; à v IF ' . rv 1T' · L n I mil . ,.1;," iI :- .A Ñ Call for Reservations (619) 323-1773 Outside California - (800) 854.1298 general cynIcIsm about the govern- ment, and the feeling that though there may be American prisoners of war still alive in Southeast Asia, the politicians have written them off. The film doesn't offer any explana- tion of why a small group of Ameri- cans would be used in Laos as a work detail under heavy guard. Vietnam is short of food and money, but it has a considerable labor surplus, and, with ","" recent reports of a Labor Coöperation Treaty between it and the Soviet Union, and hundreds of thou- sands of Vietnamese being sent to work in Siberia, it seems likely that the Vietnamese government would want to trade any Ameri- can prisoners for goods or money rather than go to the expense of hiding them and guarding them. But whether or not there's any basis for believ- ing that there are Americans held as slave laborers, the movie is very can- ny in how it exploits our cynicism about the United States government's denials. In "Uncommon Valor," the gov- ernment isn't seen as an expression of the will of the people, anymore, but as something completely cut off from them. The seven men, who have been psychically scarred and ignored- these men whose feelings aren't sanc- tioned by the government-express the people. The men who were lifted out by helicopter at the start are very appealing in the way they relate to each other; there's something they don't speak about but share. What they did last time left them feeling impotent; they're going back, and this time they're going to do it right. They're all low-key, except for the flamboyant Sailor. And, in the movie's terms, their defiance of the govern- ment-they keep going even after the C.I.A. fingers them to officials in Bangkok and their weapons are confis- cated-is enough to make their mis- sion honorable and make them heroes. The film shows us Communists holding Americans prisoner and treat- ing them cruelly; what's implicit is that the Communists are doing it be- cause they're evil. It boils down to this: we know these seven Americans and we're touched by them; we don't know the men they're killing (or what they may have suffered) And so, dur- ing the weird, quick chaos of the ac- tual raid, the audience has the pleasure of cheering each time a Vietnamese or Laotian soldier is bumped off. The exultant, patriotic American music on the soundtrack during these attacks . # JANUARY 23,1984 adds to the audience's good feelings. Here, finally, is a movie about our heroes in Vietnam. The cheering is racist and childish, yet somehow not deeply offensive. It's as if the audience were saying, "This is how it should have been." "Uncommon Valor" depends on the vainglorious idea that seven ex- Marines can take care of almost any number of foreigners. And it sets up typical action-movie ploys: The raid- ing group has a young, inexperi- enced member (Patrick Swayze), whose reasons for joining up are different from those of the others; probably the true reason is that the picture needs a juve- nile lead so that the younger audience will have someone to identify with. And the film includes three heroic, anti-Communist guides who help the men over the border from Thailand into Laos. The movie is nowhere more fake than in its handling of these three spirit-of-the-good- Asian-people char- acters: an old man (Kwan Hi Lim)- Gunga Din with a gun-and his two strong, resourceful daughters (Alice Lau and Debi Parker). Introduced to "balance" things, sexually as well as racially, they are supremely coura- geous, and as inhuman as the evIl Communists who have enslaved our American boys. John Milius was one of the film's producers, and it has overtones of his pop mythologizing, but Ted Kotcheff doesn't go in for big flourishes. He makes just one excep- tion: Tex Cobb's wildman, called Sailor because he used to "take a lot of red wine and uppers and sail away." Sailor is all flourish; he could be a sentimental cartoon of the bearded, bearlike Milius. And, maybe because Hackman's colonel is so locked in his determination, the film really needs Cobb, whose performance is playful and uninhibited. Alone on the screen doing free-form tai chi in silhouette during the closing credits, he's an en- dearing figure-a big, slobby satyr. (He couldn't be more unlike the lean, relatively hairless Asians.) Starting with its easily forgotten ti- tle (taken from the words of Admiral Chester Nimitz inscribed on the Ma- rine Corps War Memorial in Arling- ton, Virginia: "Uncommon Valor Was a Common Virtue"), this movie is pe- culiarly understated, and maybe that's part of why it's so effective It isn't a solid piece of work, like "Under Fire" or "The Dogs of War," but it moves on a strong emotional current. The cinematography, by Steven H. Burum *